试论行业协会与政府关系模式的选择

随着我国市场经济的发展和政府职能的转变,行业协会组织得以迅速发展,并在我国经济社会发展中发挥着重要的不可替代的作用。由此也对政府与行会关系提出了新的挑战。构建政府与行业协会之间良性互动合作关系,对建设服务型政府、推动公共管理社会化进程、促进公民社会发展具有十分重要的意义。构建行业协会与政府间竞合关系的新型模式为深入探讨我国政府与行业协会间良性互动合作关系提供新的探索和启示。     

The evolution of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom: Extending countervailing power

The concept of countervailing power has been used to suggest that the power of unions explains the origins and development of employers' organisations (EOs). However, unions have declined since the 1970s, but EOs continue to play an important role in employment relations. If pressure from unions is not sufficient to explain continuing employer organisation, what does account for it? This article pursues this question by examining the evolution and activity of UK EOs between the 1960s and 2016. Our countervailing power argument goes beyond a sole focus on unions to include changing pressures and demands on EOs caused by the state such as individual rights legislation and campaigns by civil society organisations. The changing force exerted by these societal pressures helps to explain the shift of EOs' focus from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of EOs, to lobbying, provision of services, legal support, and training.     

论行业协会有效参与标准制定的法律保障——从“电摩标准”之争说起

电摩标准之争显示,我国立法上日趋重视行业协会的参与,但保障行业协会有效参与标准制定的法律机制尚未建立。由于标准的制定过分依赖政府部门或过分依赖行业协会都将影响规制的公益目的实现,因此,应规定通知与评论、说明理由以及影响评价程序保障行业协会全面、有效地参与国家标准的制定,实现标准制定的公正和合理。     

高校学生社团在校园文化建设中的作用

校园文化建设是高校改革发展的重要组成部分,学生社团是展示高校校园文化的一个重要窗口。加强学生社团的建设和管理,对强化学生思想政治教育,推进素质教育和丰富校园文化生活具有十分重要的作用。本文从校园文化建设的视角分析高校学生社团发展的现状及存在的问题,并提出合理的改进措施,以实现学生社团的健康可持续发展,为繁荣校园文化发挥更好的作用。     

Reversing deforestation? Bioenergy and society in two Brazilian models

Year after year, the deforestation rates in Brazil are alarming and this country is one of largest consumers of biomass energy in the world. In order to respond to this scenario, Brazil has developed a vast forest potential that, by the other hand, has attracted the attention of environmental groups that struggle to reduce the establishment of large-scale exotic species plantations. To respond to both pressures (the productive and environmental), the non-governmental and the private sectors have developed two innovative and independent forms of social participation for addressing this matter. The non-governmental sector created the Forest Replacement Associations and the private companies created the Small-Farmers Forest Partners Program. An overview and an analysis of both models is presented here.     

Consumers’ evaluation of brand portfolios

This study explores how consumers evaluate lodging brand portfolios and shows the important role of brand-specific associations and brand portfolio effects in forming brand attitudes toward extended brands. The findings suggest, in general, that both brand-specific associations and brand portfolio affect consumers’ evaluations of extended brands. In addition, brand fit and familiarity are found to be important in consumers’ attitude formation in that they moderate attitude transferability between a brand portfolio and its extended brands. Managerial implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The U.S. Postal Savings System and the collapse of building and loan associations during the Great Depression

Building and loan associations (B&Ls) financed over half of new houses constructed in the United States during the 1920s but they lost their predominance within the following decades as they were pushed to convert into Savings and Loans (S&Ls). This study examines whether the U.S. government-insured Postal Savings System attracted funds away from B&Ls precisely when they needed them the most in the Great Depression. Annual town- and county-level data from 1920 through 1935 for three states show that the sudden rise in local postal savings was associated with local downturns in B&Ls. Using a panel vector autoregression, we find that postal savings significantly reduced the amount of money in B&Ls, yet B&Ls had no significant effect on postal savings banks. Alternatively, postal savings had no significant effect on commercial banks. The results suggest that this competitive dynamic prevented B&Ls from rebounding in the mid-1930s and helped contributed to Great Depression's local real estate lending decline.     

Matching in segmented labor markets: An analytical proposal based on high-dimensional contingency tables

The Spanish economy has a very problematic labor market characterized by high and persistent levels of unemployment, elevated long-term unemployment, strong segmentation and low regional mobility, among other drawbacks. This paper uses labor matching data from a large database of administrative microdata (Continuous Sample of Working Lives, MCVL) and structures them into a contingency table which cross-classifies the information of workers and jobs at provincial and occupational levels. The association analysis performed allows us to identify a more precise vision of the structure of the labor market, and a better design regarding active labor market policies. Our results demonstrate, for example, that highly isolated markets and those that influence the entire national territory coexist in the Spanish labor market. Finally, we also propose a new smoothing method in order to deal with typical statistical problems in sparse contingency tables, such as the existence of non-structural zero frequencies or sparsity.     

On the optimal size of a joint savings association

We develop a formula for the optimal size of a joint savings association between individuals who share the same financial goal and who can save towards that goal at the same rate. Our motivating example and the core of our analysis is a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA). We measure the efficiency of a ROSCA by the expected waiting time that it takes a participant to attain his goal when no participant reneges on his commitment to contribute to the common fund, and when each of the participants receives (once) the funds needed to meet his goal. Given this criterion, we define the optimal size of a ROSCA as the number of participants that results in the minimal expected waiting time. We show that an optimal size of a ROSCA exists, that it is limited, and that it is a multiple of the number of time periods that it takes an individual to save on his own. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that when treated as a function of the size of a ROSCA, the expected waiting time is not monotonic when the size builds up from an individual saving on his own to the optimal size. A similar result obtains when we study cases where a ROSCA is enlarged beyond the optimal size. Our findings help explain the limited size as well as other features of ROSCAs observed in developing countries all over the world.     

民间商会的“一业多会”问题及其求解路径——基于温州行业协会的实证研究

由于相关法律法规没有理顺地、业、会之间的关系,这使一业多会成为可能。行业协会组织边界的约束、部门条块分割及其利益诉求、企业家的利益驱动等使这种可能转化为现实。与一业一会相比,一业多会通过扩大入会率和矫正寡头化现象而更具有代表性。因此,在制度设计上,应该通过培育竞争机制、民主机制和绩效评估机制以及取消政治激励来推进一业多会的发展。